Audio reveals swipes at Obama, other Illinois Democrats

Rod and Patti Blagojevich arrive at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Thursday as onlookers take cell phone shots.

Rod and Patti Blagojevich arrive at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Thursday as onlookers take cell phone shots. (Tribune photo by Alex Garcia)

Rick Pearson, Tribune reporter

Rod Blagojevich had barely taken his hand off the Bible after being sworn in as governor when he pledged not to "let cynicism become the death knell of progress" in state government.

More than seven years later, the secret recordings being played at his federal corruption trial show a Blagojevich whose cynicism ran rampant in his final weeks in office before FBI agents arrested him and lawmakers quickly dumped him from power.

The distaste and distrust extended to everyone from his closest allies to the incoming president of the United States.

Former Senate President Emil Jones, at the time Blagojevich's chief legislative protector and enabler, "humiliated me" by signing on to an ethics reform bill that curbed campaign fundraising, Blagojevich said in one recording. As such, Jones is no longer "a very inspiring thought" to be a pick to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. Still, Blagojevich continued, Jones "can raise money for me."

Blagojevich accuses then-president-elect Obama and Obama's advisers of making a "concerted effort" to portray now-convicted former fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko as "all about me" and not Obama to dirty up the Illinois governor.

"I'm a big boy and I can handle that, but it's really (expletive) galling. This guy is more Tony'd up than I am," Blagojevich tells his then-chief of staff, John Harris, in a telephone call 10 days after Obama's election. Obama has described as "boneheaded" a private land deal involving Rezko and their adjoining South Side properties. Rezko solicited campaign funds for Obama and Blagojevich but served as a top adviser to the former governor.

In another recorded call, to former deputy governor Doug Scofield, Blagojevich refers to Obama's efforts to "get out of Chicago politics" and escape the taint of Rezko. But Blagojevich won't let Obama off that easy. "I subscribe to this," Blagojevich tells Scofield, "you know, misery loves company."

The hours of prosecution recordings of expletive-laced telephone calls reveal Blagojevich was growing frustrated at his attempts to turn the search for Obama's successor into a personal or political reward.

Tammy Duckworth, an unsuccessful suburban Democratic congressional candidate and current federal Department of Veterans Affairs official, has "no chance" to be his Senate pick, Blagojevich says, because she's the choice of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois' senior senator and second in the Senate Democratic leadership.

Rahm Emanuel, who was soon to become Obama's chief of staff, was pushing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett for the Senate appointment because he doesn't want to compete with her in the White House, Blagojevich asserts. Jarrett later dropped from Senate consideration, but Blagojevich described dealing with Emanuel as a "one-way street."

The recordings also reveal that Blagojevich and his last remaining group of close advisers thought little of a current crop of Democrats, including those aspiring for office this November.

First-term Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, viewed then by Blagojevich as a potential governor rival in 2010, "under no circumstances" can be trusted. Giannoulias is now the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee.

In one call, Blagojevich pollster Fred Yang offered an interesting, if not prophetic, view of Giannoulias, who was believed by the governor's inner circle to be Obama's favorite candidate for governor.

"I don't know how, how well he's gonna do under the bright light of running for governor? With all his banking stuff," Yang said. "They're going to think that he's been vetted 'cause he won state treasurer … but that's not even close to running for governor. They're gonna give him, like, the equivalent of a media, ah, you know, rectal exam."

Giannoulias has faced problems in this year's Senate race over his role as a senior loan officer at the family's now-defunct Broadway Bank, including a Tribune report of controversial loans made to convicted felons.

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who actively campaigned for the 2008 Senate vacancy and whose supporters Blagojevich thought could deliver campaign cash in return, is the "uber African-American" who could prevent a black challenger to a third-term governor bid, Blagojevich says.

"I mean, Jesse Jr., it's a repugnant thought to me," Blagojevich tells Harris in a call on Nov. 12, 2008. "But you know, I don't believe him. I don't trust him. I used to like him. I don't like him anymore."

In a call with Blagojevich's pollster days earlier, Yang said he didn't think Jackson "deserves to be in the United States Senate, No. 1. And, I don't think he could hold the Senate seat, No. 2."